C# Discussion Boards - CodeProject

10-Jul-07 23:51

Hi,

in my application (.NET 1.1, Windows.Forms) I have built a progress bar form, which is started in its own thread. It gets the progress information from the main thread and is thus successfully redrawn during the calculations - when it is kept on the top.

My problem refers to the window instances: I want the progress bar form to be always on top of the main form, but that seems not to be easy. It always shows up on top of the main form, when I define the main form as its owner, but then the progress-bar form is not redrawn during the calculation. At the moment I have it not defined as owned by the main window, but when I now bring another window on top and then want to change back to my, still calculating, application by activating it on the task-bar, the progress-bar window is invisible under the main window.

I hope, you understand my problem... What do I do wrong? Is it not allowed to define a form, which was created in an own thread, as owned by a form created in the main thread?

Thanks in advance,
Alex

Martin#11-Jul-07 0:05

11-Jul-07 0:05

Hello,

Have you tried the "TopMost" property of the Form?

All the best,

Martin

AlexZieg7111-Jul-07 1:40

11-Jul-07 1:40

Thanks for the hint, I tried it and it works as expected, but that would be just a workaround, I think that the user will be annoyed by such a status window (I would). Is there another chance to make this window on top of my program´s windows?

Martin#11-Jul-07 1:42

11-Jul-07 1:42

Hello,

Maybe you like:
BringToFront();
SendToBack();

All the best,

Martin

AlexZieg7111-Jul-07 2:57

11-Jul-07 2:57

Unfortunately this also does not work. With each progress update I execute:

this.BringToFront();
this.MainWindow.SendToBack();
this.Focus();
Console.WriteLine("Forcing to front..." + DateTime.Now.Ticks.ToString());

This is continually executed, but I still can only make the progress window visible by minimizing other windows Sniff | :^)

Martin#11-Jul-07 3:01

11-Jul-07 3:01

Hmm...

Would it be an option if you use ShowDialog from MainForm to show ProgressBarForm?

All the best,

Martin

AlexZieg7111-Jul-07 5:20

11-Jul-07 5:20

I am already using ShowDialog from a special class I created to implement starting the second thread. But when I use the overload providing the "owner" I get the same result as when defining the owner "manually".

I´ll have to correct me: The problem which I encounter when I define the owner is that however the progress bar is redrawn, but the buttons on the progress form cannot be clicked (do not fire an event) as well as the whole form cannot be moved with the mouse, it sticks on the owner form and does not react.

Luc Pattyn11-Jul-07 5:18

Luc Pattyn

11-Jul-07 5:18

Hi,

you dont need a separate thread to show a progress bar.

you could call Application.DoEvents() every time you update the progress, but I do not
recommend that, it is a hack/ugly/not descent/whatever.

You would be better of using another thread to do the lengthy calculation,
and let the main thread (aka GUI thread) show the progress bar; to get it on top,
make it a form owned by your main form.

To communicate from your lengthy calculation thread towards the progress bar, you would
need Control.Invoke if that thread holds the update-progress initiative. I often do it
the other way around: have a Forms.Timer periodically interrogate the calculating thread
about its progress (e.g. use a property of your job object) and update the progress bar.

Smile | :)

Luc Pattyn

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S. Senthil Kumar11-Jul-07 5:21

S. Senthil Kumar

11-Jul-07 5:21

Or use the BackgroundWorker[^] class, which is perfect for these kinds of things.

Regards
Senthil [MVP - Visual C#]
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AlexZieg7111-Jul-07 5:44

11-Jul-07 5:44

Hm, this class is Framework 3.0 specific.

S. Senthil Kumar11-Jul-07 7:01

S. Senthil Kumar

11-Jul-07 7:01

Nope, it was added in .NET 2.0.

Regards
Senthil [MVP - Visual C#]
_____________________________
My Blog | My Articles | My Flickr | WinMacro

AlexZieg7111-Jul-07 9:40

11-Jul-07 9:40

OK, still too new Wink | ;-)

masked textbox

KrunalC10-Jul-07 23:38

KrunalC

10-Jul-07 23:38

My question is based on functionality in Masked Textbox control which is available only in .Net framework 2.0 onwards. I want the kind of functionality provided by MaskedTextbox control but I can't use this control as I'm currently working on framework 1.1.

So I have decided to make one for me on my own. I derived the control from Text box. I was able to implement Mask dialog and validations but stuck up with text property implementation of control.

For the Masked Textbox, if you implement telephone no. mask with format (___)___-____, then text property value initially will be blank. But on the form, Masked TextBox text will show format i.e. "(___)___-____". Also, if I write 333 in property grid for text property then in property Grid I will be able to see value as "333" while in the Control on the form it will display me a text like "(333)___-____". So in a way two different values for the same text property in property grid and control. So this is bit confusing and don't know how to implement this thing in a same way as provided by Masked Text box.

I tried to implement this by overriding the text property and giving different implementation for design time and run time. But its not helping me.

Can anyone help me by providing some ideas on how to do above things. I hope I'm clear with my question. If reading above, you are not clear about the question pls write back to me or check the working of Masked Textbox control for better understanding.

Regards,
KC

Re: masked textbox

Martin#11-Jul-07 0:55